Justin Vest

Justin Vest is the Founder and Executive Director of Hometown Action and Hometown Organizing Project–the leading rural power-building organizations in Alabama. Justin grew up in the small town of Alexander City, AL before attending the University of Montevallo where they were politicized around issues of reproductive justice and LGBTQ rights. They started organizing professionally in 2015 after finishing a Master’s of Social Work degree from the University of Alabama and moving to Maryland. There they led a coalition that won a $15 minimum wage in Montgomery County, MD. Following the 2016 election, they helped launch a rural organizing program before returning home to Alabama in 2017 to found Hometown Action. 

Justin has been a leader in the development of progressive infrastructure in Alabama as a founding board member of Alabama Forward, and founding partner of the Alabama Election Protection Network. They are also helping set the rural and Southern agenda within multiple national organizations including People’s Action, Groundwork Project, and Political Healers Project.

Hometown Organizing Project launched its disaster recovery work in 2019 in response to an EF-4 tornado that killed 23 people in Beauregard, AL. In 2020 the organization adapted its disaster response strategy to address the COVID-19 pandemic by establishing mutual aid networks that sewed over 200,000 cloth masks that were distributed to frontline workers. In January 2023, Hometown launched recovery work in Dallas, Autauga, Tallapoosa, and Coosa counties after 9 tornadoes tore a path across central Alabama. In March 2023, Hometown volunteers conducted the damage assessment in Camp Hill after a severe hailstorm left nearly every home damaged. Later that year, in collaboration with Political Healers Project, Hometown conducted a deep canvass resulting in more than 1,000 conversations across 10+ rural communities recently impacted or at high risk for future climate disasters with the goal of building rural climate protection teams equipped to meet local recovery needs and shape the long-term climate agenda.